2009 Corolla: Product Degradation in Action

Not living in one of the two or three U.S. cities where car ownership is plausibly optional, I have a 1998 Toyota Corolla. For American road conditions, where you have to confront a sea of huge trucks and SUVs and travel a high percentage of miles on curvy, undivided high-speed suburban and rural roadways, I consider this to be the most rational auto. It has 120 horse-power and an EPA miles-per-gallon rating of 32 city and 41 highway. The only time it is ever even arguably under-powered is on the steepest final approaches to mountain-pass ski areas. Even then it’s fine, really.

I say all this to give you a base for judging corporate capitalists’ familiar claim that they use big business marketing to understand buyers’ needs and improve products. This lie is exposed yet again by Toyota’s forthcoming release of the 2009 Corolla.

The 2009 Corolla will be a substantially INFERIOR product to my 1998 version. As we listen to Al Gore accept the Nobel Peace Prize for his tepid movie about climate change, all signs suggest that we live directly atop the peak of the long-predicted Peak Oil curve. By the time the 2009 Corolla get released, gas may very well be selling for $4.00 a gallon in the United States. By the time the warranty on the 2009 Corolla expires, it may be $10.00.

So, with full knowledge of this impending reality, what has the seller of the Prius done to the engine of the 2009 Corolla? The standard horse-power will now be 132, and the miles-per-gallon will DROP BY ALMOST A QUARTER to 27 city and 35 highway!

This shocking degradation of the product and egregious dismissal of the most important need of prospective buyers is the opposite of an accident. It is marketing-era corporate capitalism in normal action.

Since small cars mean small profits, even the green-flag waving Toyota Corporation hates and resents them. Like all other car-makers, it uses it marketing operations to discover new ways to sell its customers “more car.” This is partly done by exploiting people’s irrational admiration of superfluous horse-power and acceleration. Ergo, the worsening of the Corolla’s fuel-efficiency.

It is also done by the newly “e-accelerated” gambit of promoting of ever-expanding lists of junk “equipment” on the interiors of the ever-more insane gas guzzlers that remain the compulsory core mode of mobility in this, the land of the “free market.”

Toyota’s founder, Toyota Kiichiro, published Toyota Rules. They are, 1. Lower ranks must obey higher ranks and carry out work in order to create a successful business for our nation. 2. All must put their efforts in R & D and make Toyota ahead of the contemporary trend. 3. All must worship practicality and strength more than superficial beauty or appearance. 4. Warm heart and fraternity should guide our behavior to make Toyota a family-like organization. 5. By worshiping God and Buddha, Toyota employees will lead a life based on appreciative mind and in fact will repay what Toyota has… Read more »

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11 years ago

Guest

Chuck Lesker

Apparently “shocking degradation” refers to the lower EPA estimates. These estimates are lower only because EPA revised how they do their ratings. In apples-to-apples terms the old and new cars are the same.

Untrue, Chuck. The stock engines are both 1.8-liter, but Toyota raised the hp from 120 to 132 on the new edition, thus lowering the MPG.

My 1998 Corolla gets exactly, precisely the 32/41 it was rated at.

Toyota has thrown away MPG (to say nothing of trying to IMPROVE it) for the sake of profit, as all car-makers have been doing for 50 years.

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10 years ago

Guest

Chuck Lesker

The revised (new) epa rating for the 1998 Corolla is 25/34. See, e.g. http://www.topqualitymotors.com/Info/Corolla.htm or EPA’s own web site http://www.fueleconomy.gov . The 2009 Corolla is rated at 27/35. Apples-to-apples the new Corolla has marginally better mileagem even though it has higher horsepower. (No reason hp should have a monotonic relationship to mileage given advances in technology over the ten years.) The new EPA ratings were introduced precisely because no one ever achieved the old ratings in real-life driving. If you say you did, great; but then you’ll presumably get even better mileage with the new model. It’s always better to… Read more »

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10 years ago

Guest

Chuck Lesker

By the way the new technology (not in the 1998 model) is V V T-i (Variable Valve timing with intelligence).

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10 years ago

Guest

Chuck Lesker

And what’s amazing is that, corrected for inflation ($1 in 1997 worth $1.35 in 2008), the 2009 Corolla is cheaper than the 1998 model. Now surely that’s worth getting angry about.

Even if you’re right about the mileage, it remains true that Toyota raised the hp instead of the mileage. That’s a planned defect, a piece of capitalist sabotage, and an ecological crime.

What’s your point, Chuck? That everything is wonderful?

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10 years ago

Guest

Chuck Lesker

My point is that all arguments must be reality-based, not faith-based. “Even if I got the facts wrong, my conclusion remains the same.”…Not much difference between ideologues on the right and those on the left. Shame.

OK, Chuck, let’s presume you have corrected me and that, if I were to purchase a 2009 Corolla, it would get the same mileage my 1998 Corolla gets. I have my doubts, but that could be right. So permit me to refine my point: Toyota has spent 11 model year doing nothing to improve the fuel efficiency of the Corolla, which remains one of the best, most rational cars you can buy in the USA. Instead of raising the MPG, Toyota has once again made the Corolla larger and given it more horse power, despite the fact that the prior… Read more »

Yes, I was pretty sure you didn’t actually have an actual response to my point. Now, the question is whether you, the preacher about reason and facts, can even think. How is my last post a mere repeat of what I said? I conceded your only point, and showed you how it was peripheral to the issue at hand. I guess your view is that we’re “allowed to buy” whatever we want or need, no restrictions, pure freedom of choice, all options available, and that corporations don’t sabotage their products for profit. And I also note that you assess the… Read more »

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10 years ago

Guest

Cargo Cult

Dear Chuck, You talk about “facts”, but facts are merely weapons of the capitalist running-dogs. I can’t judge the validity of your facts until you first tell us what you believe and whose side you are on. Maybe in your world the two Corollas get the same mileage, but in my world they do not. That’s because I already know that Toyota is an evil empire, as are all corporations. Fooling us and trying to dissuade us from the True Path by intentionally and cynically making a car that had better horsepower but the same mpg is just the kind… Read more »

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10 years ago

Guest

Isaias Risk

but whipe why dont you just get a Yaris if you want more MPG and stop bitching leave the corolla as it is.

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